8th June 2014, 10:00 PM
This is a PC game. If there are going to be console or tablet or something versions sometime, they haven't been announced yet. The PC game will be out later this year, though.
Gauntlet Legends and Dark Legacy are two of my favorite games ever. They're probably my favorite action-RPGs ever, in fact... or at minimum they are very high on the list. Amazing, amazing games... but Midway's last Gauntlet game, Seven Sorrows, was a horrendous debacle of a game. It's not a Gauntlet game in any imaginable way. It was originally supposed to be something, but it totally fell apart during development; I'm glad that the PC version was cancelled, or else I'd have surely actually spent more than a few bucks on that terrible thing. After that came a DS Gauntlet game which was far in development but didn't release because Midway went under and it died with the company, sadly.
Now, after several years, WB (who bought Midway) has decided to resurrect the franchise with this reboot that is a modern topdown action-RPG somewhat inspired by the original Gauntlet game. The game is looking fun, but it's nothing like either Legends or Seven Sorrows, for sure; it's a generic-looking topdown action-RPG, of a style that there are a fair number of these days. It looks like fun for sure, and I"ll definitely get it eventually, but it's clearly no Gauntlet Legends. Ah well... Gauntlet here looks more like something like Hammerwatch (PC) but in 3d, or something like that. It's kind of like Diablo or other such games, but simpler and more arcadey, appropriately for the license. But it doesn't look like it had a lot of budget, sadly. Hopefully it'll be fun despite its simplicity.
This new Gauntlet game is from Arrowhead, the developers of Magicka, and you can kind of see that here, though as I've said this one looks like a pretty quick project. The game has okay but not great 3d graphics, and a strict overhead-only viewpoint. Does it seriously not even have an announcer guy? And ugh, warrior and valkyrie are melee-only... come on, in Gauntlet all characters have ranged attacks! I know Seven Sorrows ignored that in favor of generic beat 'em up gameplay, but that's one of the many reasons why it's so, so awful. Also, if you just run around for a few seconds the other characters all respawn? Unlimited? Modern gaming... Sure, they do charge you gold for each death so there is a punishment, but still.
Even so, the game looks fun and I'm sure I'll like it. But as a Gauntlet game, it could be better. This game looks a lot better than Seven Sorrows for sure, at least! It looks like a decently fun topdown hack and slash dungeon crawling action game, and I like such games. (Oh, and yes, the game is PC only and is releasing this September.)